


Of Course

by Robertdoc



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Best Friends, Post-Season/Series 01 Finale, Speculation, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 14:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15730854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robertdoc/pseuds/Robertdoc
Summary: (FINALE SPOILERS)Of course Lena was too scared to reveal herself to Webby again when she was powerful enough. Of course she blew her cover over such a relatively mundane crisis. And of course, as she feared, her return and her latest round of cowardice would make Webby remember she should hate her and ignore her for all eternity.But of course, Webby shows her something completely different - in her and about Lena herself - altogether.A reunion and long overdue, fully honest talk months after the Shadow War - and a path to what could come after.





	Of Course

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for "The Shadow War!", and a speculative possible path forward for a dangling plot point in Season 2....

Of course _this_ is how it happened.

Three months of being Webby’s shadow. Two months of being strong enough to start talking again, and of resisting the urge to. About a month-and-a-half of gaining enough strength to turn solid for only a few seconds at a time, and resisting the urge to do it in front of anybody.  
In front of her.

And three months of being dragged along the four corners of the world behind Webby, and resisting the urge to help her fight off all kinds of creatures. Because she didn’t need it. And the other reasons.

So of course, it all had to end because the mighty Webby Vanderquack was almost felled by a piece of candy lodged in her throat instead. While all alone in an alleyway.

Naturally.

Still, three months of semi good-luck broke all her records while she was alive. Or whatever she used to be. But to her credit, she wasn’t that distracted with inner sarcasm when it counted.

First she was too busy hoping against hope that someone would hear Webby and do something before she’d have to. Then when she couldn’t take it anymore, she hoped against hope she could stay solid long enough to Heimlich her to safety.

Then when it worked, she was too busy overflowing with relief to turn back into a Webby shaped shadow in time. Not before Webby could breathe again and focus long enough to look at the brick wall with a Lena shaped shadow reflected on it.

Of course this was how her cover was blown. Still, there were far worse ways to do such things….

At least in this one, someone was whooping for joy and calling out her name, instead of oozing out of her and cackling with all her renewed evil power. But in this one, other people who naturally didn’t hear a child almost choking to death would hear and see her jumping around trying to hug nothing at all in about a minute.

However, the fact that she was trying and failing to hug Lena did ultimately dawn on her. Enough to make her go deeper into the alleyway and see just how the Lena shaped shadow was forced to follow.

After a glance at her friendship bracelet, she voiced out loud what she had just put together. 

“You’re… _my_ shadow?” After the shadow took one last stab at a cover up by staying quiet, it only gave Webby time to further put together “You’ve….been my shadow this _whole_ time? The whole time I thought you were…and you were….”

__Webby could have conceivably babbled forever, and it wouldn’t have even been the 10’th time Lena saw her pull it off. Before and after. Maybe if she stayed quiet long enough, she’d babble herself into thinking she was seeing things, and that she was delirious from choking._ _

__And that there’s no way Lena would have just stayed quiet, and merely watched her mourn and cry over her all those times in the last three months when no one was looking. Not if she had the power to show herself, talk to her and stop her heartbreak the whole time._ _

__Or maybe that’s exactly what she should have been expected to do, all things considered. What she actually did. Was still doing…._ _

__….what she’d honestly done enough of by now. Before and after._ _

__Out of vastly different kinds of fear both times. But fear nonetheless. Hurting her in equal ways all the same._ _

__At the least, nothing else was stopping her from stopping it, by her own choice this time. It’s not like she would get a next time to do better after this._ _

__Of course._ _

__So for the first time in a non life-threatening situation in three months, Lena showed herself to Webby. Visible enough for her to see, but not solid enough to touch her or anything else. After all the power she used to save her, she likely wouldn’t be that powerful enough for quite a while._ _

__Long after the last angry goodbyes ahead, anyway._ _

__In case it was her only chance to provide some kind of excuse, Lena spoke, “Technically I could only speak and touch stuff for _two_ months…” as if that made it better._ _

__It wasn’t good enough to fool Webby. Maybe nothing she ever did would be anymore. Even if it was actually true._ _

__“You could have told me you were alive for two months and you didn’t tell me?” Webby repeated, still more incredulous than angry. For a few more seconds._ _

__That all ended with her next takeaway._ _

__“ _Of course_ you didn’t. Of course you….”_ _

__Webby didn’t finish filling in what else Lena didn’t do. Or her lack of surprise that she kept something this big from her again. Not with words._ _

__She did it with a very familiar frown._ _

__Webby didn’t know how familiar it was. Because this Webby never used it before. But the Webby from Lena’s worst nightmare did when she found out the truth from _her_._ _

__A nightmare Lena still relieved in her dreams more than her actual kind of/sort of demise. A nightmare that was still 100 times worse than what really wound up happening. For all the horrible realities lately, none of them really came close to the very worst possible outcome Lena had imagined. Until right now._ _

__Until she saw the real Webby finally give her that awful, angry, devoid of all warm and wonderful Webby things frown for real. It was three months overdue, but it was foolish to think it would never come for her for real._ _

__Of course it was._ _

__Yet in reality, Webby didn’t yell for Scrooge before she…._ _

__That was the only thing to give Lena any comfort as Webby turned and walked away. Dragging her with her by extension. Now knowing Lena had to follow her, and still not saying anything. Probably nothing to her ever again._ _

__Lena still had enough sense to turn back into a regular shadow in the meantime. Following along as Webby marched down the street, towards the mansion, past the boys, up the stairs and into her room. That same nightmarish frown never leaving her face._ _

__Still devoid of the light and joy that once made Lena start daring to think it could wind up in her eyes too. That so many things people…. _things_ like her were never made to have could be hers._ _

__Webby probably thought it was better to end the last of those pathetic dreams in private. To make sure Lena never deluded herself into thinking she could have anything more than a shadow’s life again. Just like…_ _

__No._ _

__Not like her. _Never_ like her. No Webby in reality could ever be like her. If Lena still believed in anything, it had to be that._ _

__Yet such belief wasn’t strong enough to make Lena turn back into herself in front of her, despite being all alone in her room now. Maybe it was one last sad attempt to wait her out. One last futile attempt to hide what she was and always had been from her, before she knew better for all time._ _

__Not that she was even looking at her. Or at whatever Lena was passing for a normal shadow._ _

__Instead, she seemed to be unlocking a small safe, taking the contents with her as she went to her bed. Contents she then put down next to her. Contents that looked….very very familiar._ _

__Contents that were in her home the last time she saw them. And wrote in them._ _

__“This is how I found out….who you are,” Webby declared as she held up Lena’s diary, talking and displaying it to no one who was actively showing herself. “I snuck out and brought it here the night after…you left.”_ _

__Of course Lena missed that while she was sleeping. Here she thought mastering the art of sleeping through Webby’s 3 am activities was a good thing to carry over with her._ _

__“But I couldn’t read the rest of it. I still can’t,” Webby continued. “Maybe I was afraid to. Maybe I thought I could still get in trouble for it. Maybe I was hoping you’d steal it back. Maybe I still thought you’d give me permission first and we could read it together….and you could….”_ _

__Well, she wasn’t wearing that frown anymore. Not that her watery eyes were even remotely better. They never were._ _

__“I don’t know what I thought!” Webby confessed. “I don’t know what I think! I’m not gonna figure it out from this anyway! All I wanted was…” With that, another less ominous but no less unsettling frown came about. Maybe all frowns on Webby just looked that….unnatural._ _

__“I don’t even know if I should still want it,” Webby admitted. “All I know is, if you’re really here and you still want to convince me….then you need to tell me everything. And I mean _everything_. Now.”_ _

__That was both unnatural and scary. Her words more than her frown that time._ _

__It wasn’t that her request wasn’t unreasonable. Or something Lena shouldn’t have followed long long ago. But the only blessed thing from that night at the bin was that it went by too fast for Webby to make that request then. And now….when she had even more time to get ready to hate her excuses, and all her schemes and uncovered lies, and…._ _

__It was so much better when her sacrifice distracted her too much to hate her. Which was how it was supposed to stay as long as she didn’t ruin things, by being alive enough to make her remember how much she should hate her._ _

__No matter how intimidating Webby was trying to be right now, that couldn’t change. Lena couldn’t break and then spend the next 80 years paying for it, with side eyed glares of hatred at her shadow when people weren’t looking….and then even worse indifference…._ _

__Not even when her attempts at an intimidating look morphed into a more familiar look of sorrow._ _

__Not even when her demand for Lena to talk turned into a quiet, sadder and more resigned “Please?”_ _

__It wasn’t a puppy eyed please. Those Lena was used to from her, if not ever able to say no to. This was something deeper. Something more heartbreaking. Something different from the anger, betrayal and accusations Lena expected to feel behind her request. Something much more awful to see taking over Webby._ _

__Something even harder to say no to._ _

__Longing._ _

__Longing to hear from Lena. Perhaps not so she could tear apart her excuses and call her a traitor, now that she couldn’t cling to the delusion she was a fallen hero anymore. Now that there was no reason to look….this upset that she wasn’t getting to talk to her._ _

__How should she be this upset, even now?_ _

__Was she really just faking it to get her answers and then turn on her? To give her false hope and then crush her like she deserved? To weaken her so that when she told her to go away and be quiet for good, she’d obey? Just like…_ _

__No, _no_! Not like….another who had every reason to hate having her as a shadow forever. Who had every reason to hate her for being disloyal…._ _

__….even if this one never enslaved her first. Even if the last one never said please. Or asked her to do things. Or made sure she was safe. Or who was happy just to see her happy even if she didn’t follow any orders. Or did anything but give her orders. Or made her feel like part of a…_ _

__Or…or who was starting to cry because she was leaving her alone…._ _

__“Okay.”_ _

__The word came out before Lena thought twice. Before her fear could make her think a third time, she finally retook her old form. A form that Webby narrowly remembered wasn’t solid enough to hug before she sat back down._ _

__A form that couldn’t touch her, but who could make herself finally give her something better. Something she needed and deserved even more than all the hugs she was just starting to get good enough to give._ _

__“Okay, Webby. I’ll tell you everything.”_ _

__And she did. And once she started, she was surprised at how thorough she wound up being. Especially when she got to her worst nightmare. She didn’t even let the latest change in Webby’s expression throw her off before she got to _her_ possession._ _

__To her final imprisonment of Lena. To Webby bringing her back. To her far too late realization that she was never human. To her late nights of trying to get stronger while Webby was asleep, and the little she was still struggling to do without the boost from _her_ magic. To how she was stuck with a front row seat to every one of Webby’s expeditions, and how she barely held back the temptation to reveal herself until Webby’s most mundane near-death experience._ _

__And that was that. It was all out in the open now. Leaving Lena to be fully judged._ _

__The only one who ever knew everything about Lena hated and despised her for it. Scrooge’s acceptance after her confession in the cage didn’t really count, because he had other epiphanies and an evil nemesis to fully focus on._ _

__Now here was Webby, who saw things in Lena she could have never possibly seen herself, before she or Lena fully knew what Lena was truly made of. Yet that wasn’t the case anymore._ _

__Now the shadow was completely in the light._ _

__Probably about to learn for the last time how it was never meant for the brightest and warmest light to shine on it._ _

__+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++_ _

__“Were you ever going to tell me?”_ _

__That was honestly the best and only thing Webby could ask right now. If only to think of something other than….well, there were too many horrors to be frozen by._ _

__If that was how it was like to just listen to them, then…._ _

__“I swear, I tried to at the other bin! I know I was too late in every way, but I did try!” Lena pleaded, breaking Webby’s mental paralysis and giving her something semi-easier to focus on._ _

__“No, no, not that,” Webby corrected. “I mean…if you didn’t have to save me today….were you really just going to stay my shadow forever? Without saying anything?”_ _

__Webby then saw Lena shift into her cool, wise girl mode for the first time as a shadow. “Well, as far as eternal torments go, it’s only the third worst I’ve been through. Those lectures are still clinging to second so far.”_ _

__Yet just like when Lena was human, that attitude didn’t fool Webby for a second. At least that one of hers never did. “What do you mean, eternal torments?”_ _

__“You know….being stuck to a best friend who wouldn’t have to miss you anymore if you weren’t dead, watching a real family you can never be a part of, getting dragged to scary adventures every day without the grunt work, actual death risks or bonding side effects….it’s the best worst eternal plea deal available, I’ll give them that.”_ _

__“How could you think _any_ of that?” Webby asked before realizing she asked that out loud._ _

__“Really? You know everything now and you still don’t know that?” Lena scoffed an even faker scoff than usual. “I got off easy for using the only person who ever cared about me. I used up the last of my luck already. Why push it?”_ _

__“Because….”_ _

__Webby narrowly stopped herself before her answer could turn into a frustrated rant. She didn’t know if she was relieved or crushed when it worked well enough for Lena to turn her back, thinking it would hide whatever else was struggling to break through her placid façade. Which was even more translucent than the rest of her._ _

__Webby then decided to push it herself, but in a different way. “So you’d rather be nothing more than….just a quiet, lifeless attachment to someone you think doesn’t care about you anymore?”_ _

__“Well, why should that change now, huh?! That sort of stuff happens to _humans_! And I knew that wasn’t me long before I knew the exact specifics!” Lena insisted with her back turned up higher. “Can’t you just get to the part where you wish I was never reborn and be done with it?”_ _

__“You think I would say that?” Webby asked, all anger giving way to shock. Yet Lena doubled down on her resignation._ _

__“What else is there to say now?”_ _

__Webby ran through all the hundreds of possible, much more accurate answers. But before she settled on the top few dozen, she took a second look at the exact words in Lena’s question._ _

__What else is there to say…._ _

__Did she really think there was nothing else to say besides those terrible words? How could she not know? How could she think Webby would ever think that about her?_ _

__How could she…._ _

__Then Webby began to really consider the how._ _

__A how that came from an entire life of enslavement, brainwashing, being used and being punished when she dared to discover a mind of her own. A how that came from a lifetime of being trained for nothing better. Of being trained to believe she was nothing better. Of being threatened and tortured when she finally realized she was better. When even against all that, she became better…._ _

__….and still got punished for it. After a lifetime of being led to believe punishment was all she deserved._ _

__How could she believe otherwise after all that?_ _

__It wasn’t that Lena thought Webby could ever think like that. It was that she was never given any reason to believe someone would think better of her than that. Not if they knew everything about who she was._ _

__And then when she finally realized who she actually really was, _this_ was all she got for it. And even after everything, she could only believe that was the best she could hope for. Because this probably was the best she ever got._ _

__“Oh, Lena….”_ _

__Webby didn’t stop to think if she said that out loud, and just went over to sit in front of Lena. To see what she was hiding on her face._ _

__Her eyes were too closed and too filled with tears to look at her. Her face was turned away as well, and she seemed to be making a great effort not to audibly sniff or make any noises with her mouth. On instinct, Webby reached to hug her whether she wanted it or not…before remembering she couldn’t._ _

__Because of…._ _

__Now Webby had to close her eyes. Not out of sadness she was trying to hide. Out of another emotion she couldn’t possibly try to. Not after all this._ _

__When Lena finally opened her eyes, they zeroed in on Webby’s fists. She’d seen then close up countless times when she swung them in a fight, or was training for one. She’d never seen her squeeze them as tightly and as furiously as she was right now._ _

__Something was boiling up in her that’d only come up this powerfully one other time in her life. That was three months ago._ _

__That case and this one both had the exact same target._ _

__In this case, however, it made her voice something she’d never dared to think or wish on anyone before. She doubted it would be the last time she felt it towards this anyone, though._ _

__“We should have _killed_ her….”_ _

__Webby’s fury was only broken by her hope that she properly stressed the word her. That it was enough for Lena to understand she wasn’t that her. That Webby would and could never see her like her. That no one ever should again._ _

__Especially Lena._ _

__Even now, Lena was doing good without even trying. Because the mere memory of her goodness and the mere sight of her was pulling Webby back from a Donald like explosion. Reminding her of what really mattered – who really mattered – more right now._ _

__Who really needed to hear all the other, much nicer words inside of her._ _

__“That’s all you’ve ever known, isn’t it? All she ever let you know. You only ever started to know anything better…because you let yourself care about _me_ ….” Webby realized._ _

__About her. Little old, intense, obsessive, nerdy, formerly friendless, formerly lonely, formerly almost family-less, never really special enough to be noticed before nine months ago….her._ _

__And yet she was enough to make someone literally created from the ultimate darkness find out how good she really was. If only for a while._ _

__It only put even more weight behind her rhetorical question “How else could you not see what a _miracle_ you really are?”_ _

__Webby once again hoped she put the proper emphasis on the key words. To get across that it wasn’t her usual hyperbole and exaggeration, but one of the honest and pure facts she knew in a lifetime of collecting them._ _

__“How else could you think you deserve to spend _another_ lifetime as a shadow puppet? Just out of reach of what you truly want forever? How else could you ever think I would stop showing you something better now?”_ _

__“But I did…” was all Lena seemed to think she needed to counter with._ _

__“If there’s anything else I learned three months ago, its how to forgive the people you love. At least when you understand how truly sorry they are,” Webby remembered. “I may be new to this family thing, but even I know that should be enough! When you care about someone for who they really are, that should be enough! You don’t just keep punishing someone you love or care about or created for no good reason!”_ _

__Webby rescued herself from another rage spiral in time to see Lena softening too. She in turn softened enough to finish with “I was hoping I’d get to tell you all that for three months. Now that I have, do you really think I would ever wish you’d go away? Just because you messed up in ways I know will never happen again? I know the real you well enough to know you know the real me better than that!”_ _

__Lena made enough sense of that tongue twister to say and remember, “I do…” As it redawned on her, something new dawned on Webby too. Not so much new as in something she finally cleared up enough space to focus on._ _

__“Then we both know I could never leave you like this. Not like _she_ would.”_ _

__++++++++++++++++++++++++++++_ _

__Lena saw a new old frown emerge onto Webby’s face. Not the one from the nightmare, but another familiar one. The one she put on right when she was about to work on something big._ _

__Sure enough, she marched into her research space and went to her big board. But in a new twist, she started taking down some of the old pieces, pictures and maps she’d had up since long before she met Lena._ _

__“We solved most of this already anyway,” Webby muttered. “Time for a new long term project….”_ _

__It took 15 minutes of Webby searching through files, putting up pictures and drawing all too intricate maps connecting them before she elaborated with words._ _

__“Those are the most recent files,” Webby started. “I’m sure you’ve got a few things back at your place. We can start from there and work our way back until we start figuring it out.”_ _

__“Figuring what out?” Lena asked after she stopped being dizzy from Webby’s movements._ _

__“Magic.”_ _

__Now that Webby was staying still enough for Lena to focus, some of those transcripts of incantations did look familiar…._ _

__“We’re gonna gather up everything else we know about it. We’re gonna practice the magic we’re already wearing!” Webby proclaimed while pointing to her bracelet. “Then we’re gonna find every possible magic clue on every adventure we go on until we get the right ones! Eventually one of them has to lead us to the right spell!”_ _

__“What right spell?”_ _

__“The one that sets you free.” Lena’s silence as she took this all in was all Webby needed to keep going._ _

__“Somewhere out there is a spell that’ll give you your freedom, I know there is! And while we’re at it, if it’s possible and if it’s what you want….I know there has to be a spell that’ll make you what you’ve always been to me. A real human girl. We’re gonna find it all and you’re gonna be the real Lena for good and forever!”_ _

__+++++++++++++++++++++++++_ _

__As uncharted and as impossible as this all seemed, there were a few constants for Lena to cling to._ _

__First and foremost, the one where Webby was jumping around in premature joy over starting a mission and a mystery. And inevitably, there’d be the one where Lena’s more sensible objections and nitpicks were overwhelmed by the sheer force of Webby’s will._ _

__But with these nitpicks, this mission and this mystery….could it really follow that tried and true formula that somehow always seemed to work out?_ _

__Of course it couldn’t. Not for this. Not for her._ _

__Right?_ _

__“How do we know those spells exist?” Lena started the process. “For all I know, if they did, she burned them all years ago on the off chance I got any ideas.”_ _

__“Then we’ll find out where she did it, get the remains and put the dust particles back together with tape, easy!” Webby shot down on cue._ _

__“Okay….what if we’re not powerful enough to use them right? It could take me a year just to stay solid for 10 minutes!” Lena pointed out._ _

__“We’re good enough with friendship magic to get another 5 easy! That’s all we’ll need by the time we find everything!” Webby overwhelmed._ _

__“Then….what about any side effects? What if you have to suffer for me to get better? That’s the kind of trade off magic has all the time!” Lena worried._ _

__“Well, then it’ll be my turn, won’t it?” Webby brushed off without hesitation._ _

__Usually Webby delivered the knockout blow on the seventh or eighth foiled objection. To speed ahead in half that time, like that, without any thought to herself, all for someone who just fully confessed her past treason…._ _

__Could it really be that simple?_ _

__“What about your family?” Lena put up one more token defense. “What are you gonna tell them?”_ _

__So of course, the token defense was the one that finally tripped her up._ _

__“What _am_ I gonna tell them?” Webby repeated, before trying a little harder than usual to brush something inconvenient off. “No, wait, it’ll be fine! They trust you, or at least they trust me!”_ _

__“Enough to put themselves through magical dangers that almost killed them a while back? Again?” Lena regained her nitpick strength._ _

__“Yeah!” Webby somewhat forced her confidence. “And Scrooge….” On that point, she faltered for real._ _

__“He did promise me a place in the family,” Lena tried to talk them up. Then her doubt and natural mistrust returned enough to say “But who knows if he meant it, or if he just needed me to help him escape….not that it did any good.”_ _

__“He’s not gonna lie about something that big again!” Webby regained her strength. “There’s been too many lessons about lies and secret missions to risk having more of them!”_ _

__“But would the world’s biggest magic hater really risk another magic war? For _her_ creation?” Lena worried. “Especially if there’s even the tiniest risk it could lure her, and give her a chance to get her powers back? Do you really want to take the tiniest risk he won’t take that chance?”_ _

__Lena hoped against hope she was using the right inflections to show this wasn’t some manipulative seed of doubt. Or the kind of traumatic doubt Webby just tried to destroy in her. Was it really that fair to give the most hopeful girl in the world her kind of doubt, just because she was still too scared to trust people other than her?_ _

__“Maybe you’re right…”_ _

__Well, too late now._ _

__“I mean, we don’t know if we can really do it yet….so we shouldn’t risk another big magic battle until we know we can handle it….until we know the tools are out there and we can get them! Right?” Webby struggled to reason. Before Lena could decide whether to talk her in or out of it, Webby made the decision for them._ _

__“Okay….we won’t put them through all that again until we know for sure. We’ll do our research, track the spells down, train ourselves properly to use them….and _then_ we’ll tell them all! It’s not like before if we promise to tell them eventually! At the right time!” Webby narrowly convinced herself._ _

__She knew she should know better after two family-threatening lies blew everything up so bad, they needed _her_ attack and Lena’s suffering to fix it. But if they were going to put them through another possible magical struggle no matter what….the least they could do is spare them from it as long as possible._ _

__And if there was the slightest chance they wouldn’t think Lena was worth it….that was the greater risk to cut off._ _

__So another secret mission it was. Besides, they knew so much about how those went wrong by now, it’d make it easier to do the opposite. Except for the part about not doing them at all._ _

__Other than that, no problem._ _

__“So we’re right back to where we started, then,” Lena got one more round of snark in. “You hiding a mission from your family, me hiding my true identity from everyone….just like the good old days.”_ _

__“But this time we’re in it together! Completely!” Webby found wiggle room to be hopeful again._ _

__“And that’s good enough to possibly risk your family? Your friends? Everything you just got after you wanted it for so long?” Lena recapped. “All that for…”_ _

__“For someone who’s wanted all that even longer.”_ _

__Webby and her knockout blows…._ _

__“You’re right. I just got my family, my friends and my freedom. So why wouldn’t I help someone else finally get theirs? Especially someone who’s already family?”_ _

__….._ _

__“Why?”_ _

__The fact Lena still couldn’t help but ask that, after she’d been giving her reasons for 30 minutes non-stop, should have finally clued her in that she just wasn’t….wasn’t…_ _

__“Because you’re _not_ a monster. Because you will _never_ be Magica. I forgot that for a few seconds that day and today, but I will never forget it for a single second ever again. I just hope….someday you can do the same.”_ _

__“Either way, I’m going to do what she never would. I’m going to keep my promise to set you free.”_ _

__……_ _

__“Webby….”_ _

__For all her years of magic, Lena only truly used every bit of her power for two tasks in her life. Those cases and this new one now all had the same common factor._ _

__Twice it was to save Webby. This time it was to do something she never could have imagined wanting to do this badly months ago. Among all the other things she never imagined she could do, think, want, be, become, or hope for…._ _

__She still should have been too drained from before to become solid again this quickly. After this, there was probably no way she could do it again for days or weeks. Just when a lot more important things were likely ahead._ _

__Yet she went forward. The more she thought about why, the more she needed it. And the more that happened, the more the last inner walls which didn’t have Webby sized holes in them were crashing down. Letting out the last of her pent-up emotions she didn’t dare to let herself consider having or deserving her whole cursed life…._ _

__If anyone should see them now…._ _

__Yet there were one more thing she owed her too. The only thing she stupidly hadn’t let herself say this whole time. The only thing that really should have mattered._ _

__The one thing she knew she would feel for the rest of her life, even if she was only finally ready to say it just now. The main thing out of all the things she should have said months ago, and probably every day since she met her._ _

__“I’m so sorry, Webby….”_ _

__With the limited time she had left to do it, Lena did something she only let herself do twice before. Initiate a hug._ _

__Then she did something else she never once dreamed was possible before._ _

__Break down in the arms of someone who would let her._ _

__She didn’t know exactly how long she had until she couldn’t hold Webby anymore. Or if she ever would again. So she put everything she ever had into holding her now, while trying not to let her tears drip onto her shirt._ _

__Either way, Webby held her together. As always. Only this time it was physically._ _

__Ironically, this was probably the first time she matched Webby’s hugging power. Even so, it still wasn’t wavering. Yet she wasn’t jumping up and down, humming a happy sound or wiggling around in her arms like usual._ _

__She was just propping and keeping her up like she was the strongest hero in the world. Which she already was._ _

__“I’m sorry too….” she finally added. Despite having nothing in the world to be sorry for. Which probably meant she was sorry for everything Lena went through to get here. Because of course she was._ _

__And of course, the blinding light from her friendship bracelet started to cover them up, as it was likely giving them those few extra seconds before Lena’s power ran out._ _

__Once Lena avoided falling too far through Webby and got back on her feet, she wiped her face clear of tears and tried to nonchalantly joke, “Guess we should avoid being that suspicious now, huh?”_ _

__Of course, she knew Webby wasn’t fooled for a second. She just did a better job than usual of humoring Lena. When the moment passed, Lena was composed enough to ask, “So how do we start our research?”_ _

__With the first official confirmation that Lena was on board, Webby snapped back to normal as well – by jumping up and down and cheering about the first official Webby/Lena secret-free secret mission._ _

__First, but not the last, Webby insisted. And as in all things eventually, Lena knew she would end up believing –and believing in – her._ _

__+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++_ _

__Of course, it wouldn’t have surprised either of them if they knew that halfway around the world, another darker figure was researching magic at this very moment – yet was still barely ahead of them despite a three-month head start._ _

__Of course, it wasn’t going to be a surprise when both their quests for magical research – one to relinquish power, and the other to reclaim it – inevitably collided._ _

__Of course, such a collision would be draining in ways that had little to do with magic power. Not that it wasn’t draining when Webby sacrificed every last bit of her acquired power to hold her enemy back, as her proclamation that it was because “I promised!!” rang through the moors…._ _

__But of course, even if she and her best friend had known all that and more beforehand, it would never have stopped them._ _

__And of course, nothing stood a chance ever again afterwards._ _


End file.
